1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an E-mail communication apparatus for executing E-mail communications using a communication line.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, when E-mail is received, the contents of the E-mail are manually verified and a sentence is generated responding to the contents and the reply is transmitted.
Even in the case of an automatic reply method, a reply is immediately sent when the E-mail is received or, the reply is simply sent in a pre-determined format without verifying the contents of the received E-mail.
Further, when E-mail requesting a reply is transmitted to a plurality of distant parties (listings in a mailing list), replies from the recipients are sent manually and a reply is again requested from the recipients who have not yet replied.
Reply mail is basically transmitted manually and when a large amount of inquiry E-mails are received, many man-hours are required to reply to these E-mails.
In addition, even in the case of the automatic reply method, only a formatted E-mail is sent. Therefore, a manual process is essentially required to reply to different E-mail formats and, therefore, considerable labor is required.
Further, when an E-mail requesting a reply is transmitted to a plurality of parties (in the mailing list), replies from the original recipients are administrated manually and another request for a reply from recipients who have not yet replied must be transmitted. In addition, when the reply demand is done with E-mail, it is meaningless to demand a reply with the same E-mail in which a reply has not yet been received.
The present invention has been proposed to overcome the problems explained above and, therefore, it is an object of the present invention to automatically transmit E-mail in which the reply process for every E-mail pattern and the reply demand when no reply is sent are respectively considered for situations where the E-mail is received by the parties or not received by parties, and the reply requested E-mail is transmitted by selecting, case by case, the E-mail addresses of the requesting parties.
In view of solving the problems explained above, an E-mail communication apparatus has an E-mail receiver connected to a communication line receiving E-mails from the communication line, a storage device storing analysis information for analyzing contents of received E-mails and event information, corresponding to the analysis information, to be driven when the received E-mail corresponds to the analysis information, an E-mail analyzer analyzing contents of E-mails received by the E-mail receiver based on the analysis information stored in the storage device, and an event driver reading from the storage device when an E-mail received by the E-mail analyzer corresponds to the analysis information and driving the event based on the event information.
With the structure explained above, the event to be driven corresponding to receiving the E-mail can be automatically driven by storing corresponding information to pre-analyze the received E-mail and information about the event to be driven when E-mail conforming to the analysis information is received.
Further, even when E-mail conforming to the analysis information is received, the corresponding event need not be immediately executed. Rather, the event can be executed at any desired time by forming the event with an event information monitor so that when event information includes timing information and the E-mail received by the E-mail analyzer conforms to the stored analysis information, the event will be driven based on the event information at the specified time.
Moreover, an automatic reply can be generated by structuring an E-mail transmitter, which is connected to the communication line to transmit E-mail, so that the stored event includes an E-mail transmitting event containing a transmission destination address and a file name of the mail text. When the E-mail transmitting event is executed, the transmitter reads the file corresponding to the file name of the mail text as the mail text and transmits the E-mail to the transmission destination address.
Replies can also be sent with an attachment of any desired file by including the file name of the file to be attached in the event information. The E-mail transmitter then transmits the reply with the file corresponding to the attached file name attached to the reply when the E-mail transmission event is executed.
In addition, the reply can be automatically sent to the transmission destination address by structuring the E-mail transmitter such that the source address of the mail being replied to is used as the transmission destination address if the transmission destination address is not stored in the event information.
Moreover, management of reply E-mails is performed and the reply demand can be automatically executed by structuring a transmission destination address information storage device to store, in correspondence, event group ID, which relates a plurality of events, a transmission address, reply date and time, which indicate the date and time when the reply was received, and reply time limit information, which indicates a time limit for receiving the reply.
A process for inputting the reply time limit information and storing the reply time limit information, transmission address and event group ID to the transmission destination address information storage device, respectively, is also provided. A process is provided to store analysis information, including whether the event group ID is added to the received E-mail, and event information, which is driven when an E-mail having a corresponding analysis condition is received. A process for storing, as a monitoring object of an event information monitor when no reply to the original E-mail has been received, the event information for transmitting an E-mail requesting a reply according to predetermined execution timing is also provided. All of these processes described above are conducted when the original E-mail is transmitted.
When it is detected that the event group ID is included by analyzing the E-mail with the E-mail analyzer when the E-mail is received by the E-mail receiver, the event driver and/or the event information, as the monitoring object of the event information monitor, is/are executed based on the corresponding event information. Then, information indicating that the reply has already been transmitted is stored, respectively, for the transmission address information including the event group ID and transmission address, which are identical to that of the received E-mail stored in the transmission destination address information storage device.
When the event execution timing for transmitting the reply demand with the event information monitor is detected, the E-mail transmitter searches the transmission destination address information storage device to read the transmission destination address information in which the event group ID is already added but the no reply received information is stored and transmits the reply demand to the transmission destination address stored based on the event information for the preset transmission address.
When the transmission destination address of the reply demand mail is the transmission destination address of the E-mail stored in the transmission destination information, the reply demand can be issued directly to the transmission destination address.
Moreover, a more effective process for demanding a reply can be made by storing the transmission destination address as the transmission destination information and the setting the reply demand transmission address as the transmission destination address of the reply demand.
Moreover, replies and reply demands can be managed for a transmission destination address stored in a mailing list by generating transmission destination information for each transmission destination mail address stored in the mailing list. Then, each transmission destination address is stored in the transmission destination information storage device, when use of the mailing list is specified, as the transmission destination for transmission of the E-mail.
The event stored in the event information storage device may include not only the E-mail transmission event but also a program execution event to drive a desired program. The desired program may be driven when E-mail conforming to the analysis information is received by including in the event information of this program execution event information to designate a program execution path. The event driver then drives the relevant program by reading the execution path of the program at the time the program is executed.